Bitwise CIO sees potential for 10-100x blockchain transaction growth as AI agents meet tokenized markets

Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan said investors could be significantly underestimating future blockchain transaction activity as tokenization and artificial intelligence reshape financial markets.

In a note outlining what he sees as three mistakes crypto investors are making, Hougan argued that moving traditional assets onchain and introducing AI agents could drive substantially more transactions than current market activity suggests. "I can imagine 50x or 100x," he wrote after arguing that tokenized stock transaction counts could grow tenfold "without breaking a sweat."

Hougan compared the prospect of tokenized stocks trading around the clock, rather than the current 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. ET traditional trading schedule on weekdays, increasing available trading hours from 33 to 168 per week. AI agents making trades on behalf of investors could further increase activity, though Hougan acknowledged that more trading hours would not necessarily translate directly into proportionally higher volumes.

Crypto apps are not just targeting crypto assets

Hougan's broader argument is that investors are still valuing crypto applications based largely on the markets they serve today. Citing Uniswap as an example, he argued that tokenization could expand its potential market beyond crypto and into stocks, bonds, real estate, and other assets. Hougan put the global stock and bond markets at $150 trillion and $350 trillion, respectively, compared with roughly $2 trillion for crypto, with five public companies each bigger than all of crypto alone.

The same logic applies to platforms including Hyperliquid, Aave, and Chainlink, according to Hougan. While tokenization's potential to encompass a wider range of assets is now broadly recognized, he argued that investors have yet to fully apply that assumption when valuing the platforms where those assets could trade.

Hougan further argued investors could be underestimating crypto-native companies relative to traditional financial firms entering the sector. He highlighted Tether and Circle's combined 88% share of the stablecoin market compared with PayPal's 1%, while also citing Coinbase's position in U.S. crypto custody and offshore perpetual futures markets' larger volumes relative to CME's crypto derivatives business.

Traditional firms can still dominate traditional financial products, Hougan said, pointing to BlackRock's position in bitcoin ETFs, but he expects established crypto-native platforms to remain competitive as the market develops.

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